Abu Dhabi: Italian Davide Valsecchi led all the way for the sprint win Sunday while Rapax grabbed the team championship as the curtain came down on the 2010 GP2 series at the Yas Marina Circuit Sunday.
With Pastor Maldonado having already clinched the GP2 drivers; championship it was the battle for second and third which was decided yesterday. Sergio Perez finished as the vice-champion and Jules Bianchi hung on to the third spot with his eighth place finish.
In the battle for team honours, Barwa (110 points) started with a slender one-point lead over Rapax, but Luiz Razia finished second behind Valsecchi to give Rapax their first ever championship. Addax and ART Grand Prix finished second and third respectively.
In yesterday's action, Valsecchi jumped his rivals at the start to take the lead after the first corner of the sprint race and then led all the way to the flag for his first win of the season. He was however under constant pressure from Luiz Razia and Romain Grosjean.
The Italian's victory was set up when the lights went out: poleman Josef Kral was slightly delayed off the line, handing front row starter Razia a clear line to turn one, but the Brazilian went too deep.
Valsecchi and Grosjean were side by side out of the corner and into the lead, and when Razia chopped back on track the Frenchman had nowhere to go and dropped back to third to avoid being squeezed on either side.
Behind the top three, Sam Bird had made his customary sharp getaway but was quickly jumped by Dani Clos, with a fierce battle for P4 commencing between the pair ahead of Kral, Sergio Perez and Oliver Turvey: the Mexican was soon by the poleman and looking for more, making it a three way fight for fourth place.
The battle was extinguished almost as quickly as it began: two laps later Perez dived inside at a gap which wasn't really there, colliding with Bird and putting the pair out of the race almost instantly: with teammate Giedo van der Garde picking up three drive through penalties the Addax pitwall realised that their chances of reclaiming the team's championship was over for the year.
At the flag Valsecchi held on for victory by less than a second from Razia, with Grosjean holding off a late charge from Clos, Kral claiming a few more points for fifth, and Turvey just hanging on to the final point against a spirited challenge from Brendon Hartley.
